Both ENDS in Copenhagen, what´s up?

Both ENDS in Copenhagen, what´s up?

Both ENDS is here for a number of reasons. First of all, we had the opportunity to present and discuss in two sessions the rationale and preliminary results of our ADAPTS programme, which we implement together with the Institute of Environmental Studies, ACACIA and local partners in 6 river basins around the world. Secondly, the so-called Development & Climate Days are held parallel to the COP. These days focus, not surprisingly, on the role of climate change in development and provide an excellent opportunity for meeting up with partners, networking, sharing and learning. Our short documentaries on two projects funded by the European Investment Bank, which had huge impacts on the resilience of the local population and the environment, were also shown at this event. As for the negotiations, it is hard to follow the complex technical details, especially this week when the texts are being drafted, and the real tough decisions are to be made by the heads of state next week. But from talks with partners, some written updates and a briefing session of the Climate Action Network, I understand that after the fiasco of the leaked 'Danish text" there is 'positive momentum'.

The critical issues in the current negotiations are well-known: industrialised countries will need to commit to ambitious emission reduction targets and at the same time provide funding to support developing countries to adapt to climate change and follow low-carbon development paths; developing countries are asked to take measures to curb the growth in their emissions; and governance structures need to be agreed upon to monitor all of this. The estimates of what developing countries need to adapt to climate change vary, but are tens of billions of US dollars a year. How will this money be spent? Who manages these amounts, and who will benefit from them?

As we also presented in our sessions, the ADAPTS programme shows that at the local level people are already adapting to climate change, and these locally led adaptation initiatives are effective and can inform management plans and adaptation policies. If the large amounts for adaptation will indeed materialise, it is these local actors and bottom up policy development processes that should benefit from these funds.

In the big Bella Conference Centre where I am currently having a coffee, all the people, meeting rooms, sessions, stands and papers can be quite overwhelming. While some people are frantically discussing issues with each other or working hard on statements or press releases, you also see people wondering around somewhat lost. Looking around, I wonder how many of all the people here actually make a difference (including myself). At the same time, you do feel strengthened being here: the vibe is inspiring and the urgency can be felt. When you listen to a woman from Ghana struggling to grow enough food for her family, run into a group of people from small island states shouting to keep them on the map, or hear about a delegate from Tuvalu crying while giving his speech in the plenary session, you again realise all this is not just a high-level, international conference. For them it is their survival.

Clive Chibule from Zambia won the Gender Just Climate Solutions Award at the climate conference in Katowice, Poland. His project "Community strategies for climate-resilient livelihoods" aims at training rural women on leadership and climate resilience. A very important project, as Zambia is already feeling the effects of climate change, and rural women are affected most.

During the 24th Conference of the Parties (COP24) of the UNFCCC taking place in Katowice, Both ENDS partner Raju Pandit Chettri – director of Prakriti Resources Centre in Nepal - was one of the selected Southern leaders to meet with the Dutch Minister of Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade, Sigrid Kaag. We asked Raju about his expectations, messages, Kaag's responses and his experiences of the meeting.

An Open Letter to States and Development Financiers on the need to ensure that development interventions support the realization of human rights, safeguard human rights defenders and guarantee meaningful public participation

On Thursday, November 29, seven suspects of the murder of Berta Cáceres (in March 2016) were found guilty. Members of the indigenous human rights organisation COPINH, of which Cáceres was the leader, and close relatives of Cáceres herself see the ruling as the first step towards justice for her murder and the recognition that the company DESA is co-responsible for this. They also point out, however, that the process was permeated with corruption, intimidation and other abuses from the very beginning, and that the masterminds behind the murder are still walking around freely.

Today, the Right Livelihood Awards 2018 will be presented in Stockholm. One of the four people who will receive the prize this year is Yacouba Sawadogo, 'the man who stopped the desert'. Yacouba, a farmer from Yatenga, Burkina Faso, is one of the founders of so-called 'Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration' with which degenerated and dry areas are becoming green and fertile again. According to Both ENDS, Yacouba's award is very well-deserved!

The production of palm oil is often accompanied by deforestation, environmental destruction and land grabbing. Local communities and activists who stand up against these problems are often threatened. Now the RSPO has taken significant steps in recent months to tackle these issues.

On Wednesday, November 14, Dutch Newspaper De Volkskrant published a joint op-ed by Both ENDS, Hivos, Greenpeace Netherlands and Witness about the deforestation in the Amazon region which is still going on rapidly, having disastrous consequences for the indigenous people who live in the area, for biodiversity and for the climate. The Netherlands is one of the largest buyers of Brazilian agricultural products such as soy and beef, and should ensure that deforestation, land grabbing and human rights violations do not occur in these production chains. Unfortunately, this is not at all the case yet.

Every 10 years, the mandate and activities of 'Export Development Canada' (EDC), the Canadian export credit agency, are reviewed. Since the last review took place in 2008, another review is currently underway. Both ENDS and a couple of other CSOs working from a number of countries made a joint submission as formal input to the legislative review. We did this especially in light of the Canadian governments' ambition to show leadership on climate change and to prioritise climate change action and clean economic growth.

The sixth High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was held at the UN Headquarters in New York in July 2018. The HLPF provides an opportunity to review global progress towards achieving the SDGs and for countries to present their own Voluntary National Reviews of the implementation of the SDGs. At this year's HLPF, SDG 15, known as the 'Life on Land'-goal, was under review.

In 2016, the state forest around the community of Kasepuhan Karang, in Java, Indonesia, was transformed into customary lands. With these newly acquired land tenure rights, the community has started initiatives to use their land in a sustainable and inclusive way. What this means for the community in terms of livelihoods and food security, became clear during a field visit at the start of the Global Land Forum 2018.

Last September, approximately 30 women and men from community based organizations of Honduras and El Salvador learned the tool of analog forestry which uses natural forests as guides to create ecologically stable and socio-economically productive landscapes.

We are very proud that our director Daniëlle Hirsch has been included again in the ‘Sustainable 100’ (an annual ranking list published by Dutch newspaper Trouw), and has gone up more than 40 spots compared to last year! Danielle was included in the list because of the many things she does with her organisation as a whole, but she got the higher ranking for the way she combines her criticism of the destructive role of the Netherlands as a trading nation and large cause of CO2 emissions in the world (often supported by the Dutch government), with a constructive attitude when it comes to finding alternatives and solutions.

From the first moment I arrive in Surabaya, I enter the rollercoaster called ECOTON. I'm visiting them to get to know the work of this long-time Both ENDS partner, and have only three days for this. But ECOTON does a lot, and all of it at the same time. Tirelessly, they work on the protection of the Brantas River.

In 2001 Tanzania and the Netherlands signed a treaty only known to a few; a so-called Bilateral Investment Treaty aimed "to extend and intensify the economic relations between them and to stimulate the flow of capital and technology and the economic development of the Contracting Parties". But signing the treaty was in fact mainly a symbolic act which since then has had little if any effect in this respect. In fact, a report by the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis found that BITs have no positive effect on investment in low and lower middle income countries located in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa, including Tanzania.

We congratulate Joan Carling, member of the permanent commission on indigenous peoples of the UN, for having received the Lifetime Achievement Award as 'Champion of the Earth' by the UN Environment! This is the UN's highest environmental honor, given to six of the world's most outstanding environmental change makers once a year.

Our mission

Together with environmental justice groups from the Global South, Both ENDS works towards a sustainable, fair and inclusive world. We gather and share information about policy and investments that have a direct impact on people and their livelihood, we engage in joint advocacy, we stimulate the dialogue between stakeholders and we promote and support sustainable local alternatives.